Controversial tech startup Aereo Inc. said Tuesday it will expand its cloud-based television service into the San Antonio area later this year.

The New York-based company captures over-the-air signals and streams them over the Internet, where customers can access broadcast signals from major stations. Think rabbit ears in the cloud.

Membership to the service starts at $8 per month, which gives customers access to programming from about two dozen stations that can be streamed over the Internet to PCs, tablets and smartphones.

Subscribers can store up to 20 hours of programming on the company's servers, allowing the consumer to pause, rewind and record live TV. For $4 more, customers can store up to 60 hours of programming. Shows can be accessed on most Web browsers; Apple products such as iPad, iPhone and Apple TV; and Roku streaming devices. The service is expected to become compatible with Android mobile devices later this year.

Aside from San Antonio, Aereo also is expanding into Columbus and Cincinnati, Ohio, and Indianapolis. The service launched in Houston last week and in Dallas this week. Austin also is on the list of 22 markets in which the company plans to expand this year.

Aereo is expanding as cable rates continue to rise, becoming too pricey for many consumers, said industry analyst Jeff Kagan.

“The marketplace is ready for ideas that will save customers money and give them more choices, and Aereo fits into that,” he said. “There is a market opportunity for Aereo because people think they're paying too much for cable television.”

The company has been the target of legal challenges from broadcasters that claim Aereo is stealing signals without paying. Aereo's defense is that it rents its antenna to its customers. So far, the courts have sided with the startup. No lawsuits have been filed against the company in any federal courts in Texas.

“We believe in our technology. We continue to have a lot of confidence in our technology — that it was designed and built to comply with the law,” said Virginia Lam, the company's vice president of corporate communications and government relations. “And thus far, we've been gratified that the federal courts have agreed.”

Aereo doesn't have immediate plans to hire for its expansion into the Alamo City, Lam added.